EN After some time of absence from my blog, I am inspired and motivated again and am officially starting a new chapter on my blog and in my life ...

... namely the chapter: LONDON!!!For the past two years, I lived in Germany and I tried out a lot of different things (mainly with regard to work). But London has always been in the back of my mind because I was already planning to find a job there and move there four years ago. And now I was really lucky to find a job near London by accident.

As I work outside London (it takes me about 25 minutes by train to Marylebone) and the monthly transport costs are really high and the rents in London are ridiculous, I decided after careful consideration to move into the town where I work. But I'm in London at the weekends to discover the city which means that I will be telling about my discoveries :-)

Thursday, 20 August 2015

Last week, I decided on the spur of the moment that I should join my sister on her trip to Vienna. She had booked train tickets and a hotel room a few weeks before and because I was very bored, I thought that it would be a great idea to go and see Vienna as well.

My sister has been a huge fan of Austria for quite some time. I have only been to Innsbruck a few times but never to Vienna.

So after five hours on the train, we finally arrived and it was brutally hot there after we had almost been frozen on the train by its air conditioning.

I had not made any particular plans on what to look at or where to go to for lunch and dinner. I just knew about one café because a friend of mine had been there earlier this year.

So when my sister and I arrived, we were clueless. We had to get a ticket for the underground and map. My advice: if you are in Vienna for only a few days - for example, three days - you should buy the 72-Stunden-Ticket. It is only 16,50 euros for the whole three days and takes you practically anywhere you need.

The first couple of hours in Vienna were rather strange.

Sometimes you have a certain image of a city in your head and when you are finally in that place and everything is different than you had thought, it feels peculiar at first. And this is what had happened to me on my very first day in Vienna. But on the second day, I was already in love with that city. Its people, their awesome dialect (Wiener Schmäh), their culture, their food. There is diversity everywhere you go. And history, tradition and customs.

Something you need to try when in Vienna:

You can do the typcial tourist stuff such as taking a tour around the Schönbrunn castle.

Vienna is famous for its traditional coffee houses (Kaffeehäuser).

Café Central in Herrengasse 14 is one of them and it is fantastic there. Get there early to make sure you'll get seated without having to queue up for ages.

I ordered coffee and Kaiserschmarrn, a traditional Austrian dessert, and it was delicious.

Apart from its coffee houses and delicious cuisine, Vienna is also famous for its artists and musicians. There are plenty of museums, theatres, opera houses, etc.

If you want to see many things in Vienna on the cheap, you should definitely take a trip to the Hundertwasserhaus in Kegelhausgasse. The artist Hundertwasser came up with the idea and the concept for this apartment building.

Just a stone's throw away from the Hundertwasser building, in Untere Weißgerberstraße, you can find the Kunsthaus in Vienna - a museum also designed by Hundertwasser.

If you are hungry, go for a walk along the Naschmarkt. It is Vienna's most popular market and you'll find plenty of stalls there.

And if it is really, really hot and your feet ache and you just want to relax, take a trip to the Danube. The river plays an important role in the lives of the Viennese (so I was told at least) and there is quite a lot happening there when it's warm and sunny. Everyone is out and about there.

My sister and I bought some cake, sat down by the riverside and watched a canoe polo tournament. It was such a lovely evening.

Monday, 27 July 2015

Now that it is soon time for me to pack my bags and move abroad (once again), I also had to quit all my jobs I have had here in Germany. One of those many occupations was a job as an English teacher.

And I must say I had one of the greatest classes in my history as a teacher. Two semesters of fun! Let alone our amazing trip to London in May. The result is some nice, new friends who I am definitely going to stay in touch with.

Last Thursday, we finally had our last class together and for weeks before that I had been planning a special farewell and thank you to these lovely students. A British afternoon tea time! Just like the one we had at wonderful, amazing bake-a-boo in West Hampstead. I can only recommend this tea room when being in London.

Anyway, I had planned ahead for this last class and bought all kinds of colourful paper plates and napkins, took all my mugs with flowers on them with me and started to bake the day before. I was a bit nervous since I had never baked brownies before. I also tried out a new cupcakes recipe and some new variations of tea sandwiches.

In the end, everyone liked everything and I can only recommend these recipes that I found through pinterest (check out the list below). Transporting everything to school was a bit tricky since it was quite warm that day and the buttercream icing on the cupcakes and the chocolate on the strawberries were about to melt away. But they made their ways safely into everyone's mouths.

I
just wished I had had enough raspberries to decorate each and every
single cupcake. Nevertheless did we have a great time. My students were
all very surprised when they entered the classroom and saw the table. I
will miss these Thursdays with them.